Modern biotechnologies require separation, purification and analysis of biological molecules. Consequently, it is routine practice for technicians to treat biological samples with probing molecules, followed by incubation and washing. As a result, traditional incubation and washing of a membrane containing biomolecules of interest in the presence of different solutions are very common in biology labs.
Recently automated devices and apparatuses have been developed to automate such routine washing and incubation steps. Many automated devices and apparatuses rely on either the combination of automated solvent delivery system and horizontal shaker or the combination of automated solvent delivery system and vertical shaker. Even though these machines have achieved automation, one drawback of them has been the requirement of large amount of reagents, including expensive antibody solutions, to fully cover the whole surface of the blot membrane in order to achieve uniformed and effective incubation and washing of the membrane.
Consequently there is a need in the art for new or improved device and apparatus to incubate and wash membranes with less amount of reagent than what is required when using traditional devices, but without reducing the concentration of the antibody solutions. There is also a need for improved methods to accomplish uniformed incubation and washing of membranes without fully covering the surface thereof with reagents/solvents.